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OCTOBER 2005

After the Flood: Life in Louisiana

“Public Health Service officers from many different parts of the United States (New York, California, Oregon, Alaska, Maryland) came together and formed a cohesive unit that served superbly with state and local authorities to provide medical and social services for hurricane evacuees.”
— Dr. Herman Rosen (October 2005)

Hirsch Coliseum, Shreveport, LA. General Shelter run by the American Red Cross.

Notes and Images from the Field

By Joan Baum Ph.D.

Christus Schumpert Hospital in Bossier City
houses federal workers.

Eight years in the United States Air Force as a doctor at the rank of major gave the much-decorated Dr. Wendy W. Tong an advantage, she believes, in carrying out her duties as Regional Medical Director of Disaster Relief operations in Louisiana, with particular administrative responsibilities for the Bossier Special Needs Shelter in Region VII (in the northwestern part of the state). She had signed up to be, as she modestly puts it, “a worker bee,” but six days after her arrival in the hurricane-torn area for a two-week tour of duty, found herself, unexpectedly, Regional Medical Director, after her predecessor, a nurse, had left. The military, she says, gave her training in leadership but also experience in how to follow and how to be a team player. And it gave her, as well, her solid grounding in disaster response by way of simulated exercises regularly conducted for various kinds of catastrophes, though, as everyone has noted, not for Katrina! The dynamic, take-charge major adds, however, that the military also provided her with an understanding of “the cultural environment” of the public health service and other government organizations. In fact, Dr. Wong’s new administrative position would prove even more complicated than she imagined because she would be overseeing both public and private efforts, employees and volunteers, even though she accepted the two-week assignment on behalf of Northwest Medical Teams International, a faith-based organization active in disaster relief. The group paid for her airfare, meals and lodging, but then Dr. Wong was on her own, with a 24/7 mission to support patients in the Bossier Special Needs Center—those who needed physician care as well as assistance from nurses and social service professionals.

Kids playing in a hall of the Special Needs shelter.

A quick study and a forceful though sensitive administrator, Dr. Wong clearly sized up the advantages of arriving at a site that had suffered an “unprecedented” disaster. With no official job description on the books, no formal directive, she saw her “challenge” as an invitation to take the initiative and define her role and interpret her mandate generously. If such a reading of her responsibility meant that she would be “going out on a limb,” so be it. But clearly intuition as well as training kicked in, as she assessed resources and capabilities. She created a team of physicians and nurses, held daily discussions with staff, communicated constantly with headquarters in Baton Rouge. “Each day was different,” each participating support agency unique. But she also began to look at the wider situation. She soon determined that her mandate would extend beyond the Bossier special needs shelter (80 people) and embrace where she could the needs of general shelters (2000 people), and of private facilities set up by churches and schools (approximately 200–300 people).

Part of the Special Needs shelter.

Meaningful and extended service—“to have an impact, to make a long-lasting difference”—seems always to have guided Dr. Wong’s choice of career. She speaks of her emotional and intellectual heritage, first, from her “traditional Chinese family” (everyone is either a doctor or a lawyer) and then of responsibility that deepened when she attended Georgetown University, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a medical degree, and where she somehow also found time to be a teaching assistant in English, a classroom trainer and curriculum designer for volunteer efforts in less developed countries, and then a community liaison and leader for several states in their inner-city outreach programs on substance abuse, domestic violence, social services and health care.

The Oath of Hippocrates states “whatsoever house I enter there will I go for the benefit of the sick, refraining from all wrongdoing or corruption.” Clearly, for Wendy Tong, M.D. still in her 30s, there have been many houses in many countries where she has assumed the obligations of the Hippocratic ethical code. With a phenomenal record of overseeing medical services and supplies for thousands of people all over the world, Dr. Wendy Tong humbly says she feels “honored” at being privy to patient confidences and at being granted an opportunity to pursue a profession that brings her “joy.” She will be off soon to Sri Lanka for more mission-oriented work and then sometime later add another title to her name: she’ll be getting married. #

Wendy Tong, M.D.
Dr. Herman Rosen, CAPT, USPHS, assisting in Special Needs shelter in Bossier City, Louisiana
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